Historic City Hall Arts & Cultural Center will host an opening reception for two new exhibitions on Friday, October 21 from 5:30-8 p.m.  All ages are welcome, admission is free, and refreshments will be served. Both exhibitions will be on display through December 31.

Art on a String; Asian Kites in Flight contains approximately one hundred kites from over a dozen countries. Many were made by kite makers whose ancestors created a particular kite design and taught the craft to his family, who then passed the tradition to successive generations. For thousands of years across Asia, kites played a role in communication, religious ceremonies, military reconnaissance, and even fishing. Uses, design styles, and construction methods differed between cultural regions. Included in the exhibition are Korean and Hawaiian fighter kites, the Trai cobras, the Vietnamese Sun kite, a Malaysian kite from Penang Island and the Sri Lankan animal kites. The largest kite in the exhibition is a 95-foot Centipede with whirling eyes crafted by Li Shang-Pei, grand kite master of Taiwan. Also, are ceremonial kites still used today in annual events held to commemorate ancient rites; small kites, including the Edo mini kites by Tetsutaro Noguchi; and the Nogoya Insect kites by Kozo Kato of Japan. Art on a String is on national tour by the Blair-Murrah Exhibition Organization.

Award-winning photographer, Keith Monroe, opens two photographic collections and will be available to meet and greet guests. Wild Arctic and 7/10ths Blue (percent of surface water to dry land) have been in the making for years. The display includes images taken in extreme and challenging conditions from five continental regions and four ocean systems. Polar bears, harp seals, great white sharks to clown fish are just a few of the creatures highlighted in the exhibit.

Monroe has been scuba diving since 1977 and has photographed underwater wonders from the Red Sea to the South Pacific and three U.S. coasts. He has worked with National Geographic photographers and other high-end shooters in photo projects around the world. In his most recent expedition he traveled to the high Arctic to record the fragile environment, both visually and scientifically, of the floating icepacks of the Arctic Ocean to the glacier graveyards of southern Greenland. The 7/10 th’s Blue component of the exhibit explores the depths of tropical and subtropical waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the Coral Triangle of the south western Pacific.  These sensitive areas of our seas are often challenged in survival from both natural and manmade events.

Conservation through personal stewardship and awareness is the cornerstone of the message Monroe tries to share photographically. Mark your calendar for Thursday, November 10 as Monroe hosts a lecture in the second floor gallery of Historic City Hall. The event will be open to the public at no charge; doors will open at 5:30 with the program to begin at 6 pm.

The Artisan’s Gallery exhibition will hang in the first floor gallery through October 29. Historic City Hall is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are gladly accepted. Charlestown Farmers’ Market is open on Bilbo Street behind the center every Saturday 8 a.m.-noon. For more information, please call 491-9147 or visit www.cityoflakecharles.com.